February 22, 2014

These are the Olympic Games. Knowing how the game is played and playing it to get the best score is exactly what it means to win a game. I don't get this attack on Adelina Sotnikova's victory. Yuna Kim may have looked more lovely and mature, but she achieved that in part by choosing a lower level of difficulty. She knew the risk of playing the game that way, and she didn't act like a bad sport when her strategy failed. Her admirers did, however. I'm irked by their babyishness in support of the older woman's approach to the game.

22 comments:

This may sound weird, but this reminds me of the current "controversy" around current Jeopardy champ Arthur Chu. Chu has a non-traditional method of playing the game, which angers some Jeopardy purists. He doesn't follow the norm of starting at the top of categories and working his way down. Instead, he begins by "hunting" for the Daily Double clues.

Both know how the sport/game is played and are maximizing their technique for victory, not for fan appeal.

I Believe a Figure Skater is Downright Foolish Not to Skate to 'Safety Dance.' Furthermore, I Would Like to Know Althouse's History with the Song. Did it bring an Epiphany -- She Could Indeed Dance if She Wanted To? Was She So Bold as to Draw the Line in the Sand By Leaving Her Friends behind, Because 'If Your Friends Don't Dance, Well They're No Friends of Mine?' Did her Analytic Mind Amuse Herself By Moving the Comma and having the Line Read "If Your friends Don't Dance Well?' Did She Run Through Verdant Fields with Renaissance Midgets? Tag This 'Althouse in the Eighties'.

The biggest problem is the lack of transparency. The highest and lowest scores are thrown out, then two at random are thrown out. But the skaters don't see what's thrown out.

This highlights the problem I see with the winter Olympics. They are moving away from sports to athletic competitions. In a sport, the score is up to the athlete: run fastest, score the most goals, jump the farthest. In a competition, the tastes and prejudices of the judges. Reputation plays a role. Personal ties can play a role - the Russian judge is married to the head of the Russian skating federation.

Such as it is with gymnastics, diving, etc. it has become difficult to care much about the medals because the judging can be (or appear) to be questionable. This is not new but has become an increasing focus of coverage. Too bad they continue to dilute the Games with more of these subjective events, e.g. half pipe.

I liked the South Korean best, but what do I know? I made them grind the point off my skates cause I kept tripping. Anyhow, I didn't question the judges decision until NBC started working so hard to convince us it was correct.

The issue is that "figure skating", in the Olympic sense, is a technical competition and not an artistic one.

It's like the Summer Games gymnastics events; the parallel bars, the rings, the balance beam, and so on. The purpose of these events is to demonstrate proficiency at performing difficult actions. While those actions might be chosen with aesthetics in mind, you can't make different choices and still excel at the event. Maybe you do your dismount with a tuck-and-roll followed by a t'ai-chi pose instead of just standing there like a stick, but you don't get extra points for looking awesome (and, in fact, you lose points because you didn't follow the form.)

And that's what figure skating is. The purpose of the event is to demonstrate the ability to do difficult jumps and maneuvers. Maybe the appropriate thing would be for figure skating to have no theme music, and for the competitiors to only wear their national costume (modified appropriately for figure skating, of course.) This emphasizes that the event is about technique, not aesthetics.

On the other hand, "ice dancing" *is* where artistic excellence is a factor. Performers do moves that originate in the technical competition, but they are chosen for their emphasis of the overall performance, not to demonstrate technical proficiency; and *that* is where you can say "the performer executed a less-challenging routine flawlessly and with good artistic sense, unlike the other performer who had more technically-challenging moves but did not do them as well".

@Althouse, I was busy today, but I signed in this evening and I see you responded to my comment.

I disagree. My recollection is that Yuna Kim went after Slotnikova, and therefore should have known that she needed another jump to win. Better coaching should have prepared her to add another triple or turn a triple into a triple-double combination.